Process for producing a fish product

Abstract

Red or dark meat portions of whole fish are injected into light meat fillets or loins of fish to produce a palatable, nutritious fish product. The process comprises comminuting the red meat, trim, including bellies, carcass and skin of the fish to form a minced meat mass that is colored with a heat stable dye to resemble the natural color of the fish, setting or cooking, decoloring and micro cutting the minced meat and pumping or injecting the minced meat into fillet or loin portions of fish up to about 108% to about 150% of the original weight of the loin portion. The loin portions injected with minced meat may then be cooked to form a product that has chewy texture, aroma and flavor of loins or fillet portions of fish.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A process for producing a fish product resembling in color fish having light colored loin meat comprising: comminuting red or dark meat portions of fish including trim, bellies, carcass and skin to form a minced meat mass,   adding a heat stable red dye to said minced meat in amounts such that the color of the minced meat matches the natural color of fish loin after retorting,   heat setting or cooking the minced meat with added dye,   decoloring said dyed minced meat,   microcutting the decolored minced meat to a size small enough to be pumped or injected,   pumping or injecting the microcut meat into loin portions of fish to increase the weight up to about 108% to about 150% of the original weight of the loin portions and cooking the loin injected with microcut meat.   
     
     
       2. The process of claim 1 wherein from about 10 to about 30 mg of the heat stable red dye are added to each kilogram of minced meat. 
     
     
       3. The process of claim 2 wherein 20 mg of the heat stable red dye are added to each kilogram of minced meat. 
     
     
       4. The process of claim 1 wherein the minced meat mass is mixed with about 1 to about 20% by weight vegetable oil prior to extruding. 
     
     
       5. The process of claim 1 wherein the minced meat is decolored by being immersed in an aqueous solution containing hydrogen peroxide at a level of about 0.2 to about 1% by weight. 
     
     
       6. The process of claim 5 wherein the pH of the solution ranges from 6.0 to 8.0. 
     
     
       7. The process of claim 1 wherein the fish is selected from the group consisting of tuna and tuna-like species. 
     
     
       8. The process of claim 1 wherein the minced meat is heat set or cooked at a temperature of about 75° C. 
     
     
       9. The process of claim 1 wherein the minced meat is microcut to a size of about 260 to about 400 microns prior to pumping or injecting into the loin portions of fish. 
     
     
       10. The process of claim 1 wherein the minced meat is mixed with water in a ratio of at least 2:1 prior to heat setting or cooking of the minced meat.